Tweed-New Haven Airport. Yesterday and today.

You can make your own comparison

In the anti-Tweed rhetoric, I often hear that “no airplane like AVELO jets has come into Tweed”. Also, much is mentioned about the “history” of Tweed and how it only was serviced by “puddle jumpers”. This argument then evolves into accusations of “breaking agreements”. Interesting indeed. I will be addressing these so-called agreements and history in a upcoming post to Patch.

Tweed has been utilized by passenger jet aircraft for the last 50+ years. The pictures attached to this article go a long way to prove such. You don’t have to take my word (or of countless others) for it , but hopefully you will heed what I have to say. My memory is either better than that of the “10,000 Hawks” and their neighborhood gang members or these folks just choose to ignore the past and create some alternate reality. The past is staring right back at you in pictures taken (not all by me) at Tweed.

This is a Boeing 737. If you read below, you might see more!

21 flights versus 30.
In it’s heyday of the 1990’s, Tweed Airport had 21 daily commercial flights. Today, we have less than that at Tweed (12 as it stands) . I’ve heard the number 30 thrown around by Tweed advocates as a desired number of flights. Come on Hawks, you can do the math! Having 9 more flights than we once had doesn’t make us JFK. I’ll grant you, these flights weren’t all jets. In this regard, I will also vouch that the same airport critics of today, complained about everything Tweed then too. Props, jets. Whatever flew, was a gripe. Not much has changed.

Where was photojournalist “Ken” in the mid 90s?
Back in the mid 1990s, United Airlines brought us service to Chicago-O’Hare via Boeing 737-300 and -500 aircraft. Funny, 737 jets never serviced Tweed and we only had puddle jumper flights?

Above and below, you can see United Airlines 737 jets proudly displaying their colors at Tweed-New Haven Airport. Interestingly, in a funny analogy, two of these planes are snuggled up to the terminal much like two children ordered to Time-Out…maybe the 10,000 Hawks need some Time-Out too!

Not long before this era of flight service, we had Bae-146 jets service Tweed compliments of Air Wisconsin. The versions of this aircraft coming into Tweed ranged from 85 passengers to 115 passengers. Funny. We’ve never had these “jumbo jets” before! And guess what? The neighbors protested this too. Did Tweed really expand into the neighborhood?

Finally, Eastern Airlines serviced Tweed with Boeing 727 and McDonnell Douglas DC-9 jet airplanes, both 100 plus seats. Further, Allegheny Airlines serviced New Haven with Bac 1-11, 100 passenger jet aircraft. Funny. We have only had puddle jumper service. Copy that!

Above is an excerpt of Tweed Facts ( independent consortium of Tweed advocates) webpage. Pictured are Eastern Boeing 727 and DC-9. That’s either one heck of a photo shop job or, wait, or reality. By the way, the community sentiment captured in this article wasn’t exactly pro airport! If the Tweed battle ensues, 50+ years later…and the airport is still here and gaining some serious steam I might add, I can’t help but wonder about the merits of anti-Tweed sentiment.

If your arguments against Tweed are so strong, why does the same tune keep getting air play?

Believe what you wish. Credit me not for the pictures. But the reality of Tweed is right in front of you. Tweed has always been a jet airport.